In a surprise move to the latest update of the My Xbox Live app that Microsoft just released, you can now control your Xbox 360 from your iPad. No, it isn’t SmartGlass yet, but it does allow dashboard browsing, launching and game play with the controls on your iPad.

While it does require a quick sync up of your iPad to your Xbox 360, the process is painless. The same functionality was released previously for the iPhone about a month ago. It is interesting, but we are not really sure how much we would use it. While we might use the app to track achievements or send a message to a friend on Xbox Live, actual control using the iPad would only be appealing in some situations; and it is hard to say what those situations might be.

We suspect, however, the idea is to warm gamers up to SmartGlass prior to its release and getting players used to the idea of using their smartphones or tablets with the Xbox 360. You need to start someplace, and Microsoft may believe that this is as good as any place.

Intel has audited almost five times as many of its suppliers in 2011 than it did the previous year.

Chipzilla set itself a target of visiting 50 on-site, third-party audits of its suppliers during the last year. It had that target last year as well, but missed it by only carrying out 49 audits, while one had to be rescheduled.

In comparison Intel only carried out eight visits in 2010. The company also conducted 249 in-depth assessments and 289 self-assessments by suppliers.

But the findings were not that great. Intel found 426 priority and major findings, the highest class of non-compliance as defined by the company.

Most of the non-compliance related to management systems such as a lack of documentation and systems for CSR, inadequate communication with workers or suppliers and a lack of audits. But there were also 112 instances of labour abuse, which included working hours of more than 60 hours per week, and workers not being given at least one day off a week. There were also 28 issues relating to ethics, such as not having an anonymous reporting line for employees to raise issues or concerns through.

The report was interesting because it must have covered Foxconn, which has been the subject of criticism over its treatment of workers. During 2011, Intel carried out audits at three Foxconn facilities and found them about as bad as others in the region. Most of the breaches of rules were in the areas of labour conditions, safety systems, and management systems.

The company also carried out an audit on a potential supplier. Due to the results of the audit, it decided to delay using it as a supplier, and is now working with the company to address the issues before beginning sourcing. Brian Krzanich, chief operating officer at Intel, was quoted in the report: “If you want to do business with Intel, if you want to be part of our global supply chain, you’re going to have a clear understanding of these corporate responsibility issues and a roadmap for where you’re heading as a corporation.”

While a number of sources are claiming that the next Xbox (or the Xbox 720 if you will) has new controllers that will feature color touch screens as well as directional sound and a finger tracking Kinect-like technology. While it all makes for good copy, sources tell us that this is only something that Microsoft is experimenting with, and at least right now it does not know if it will be something to be implemented into the final product design.

Our sources also tell us that Microsoft has three major concerns about it at the moment: it is big, it is pretty heavy, and it will be expensive to produce. This is not to mention the fact that the level of usefulness also has been questioned. This isn’t to say the touchscreen would not be useful, but the real question is whether the usefulness of the device is in the right direction.

Despite the talk of the controller including a touchscreen, Microsoft has apparently been looking at tablets as one possible way that they could get a touchscreen-type input device. According to sources, the tablet device could be an optional offering where Microsoft might just offer compatibility with the tablet device being optional. This may be the option that Microsoft will use to keep the cost down.

Sources continue to tell us that while the hardware has been confirmed, there are still many things that remain for the company to sort out. Microsoft is rumored to be talking with a number of developers to receive additional input before making its final decisions.

The increasingly paranoid French-backed Junta which overthrew its lawful King a while back and started calling itself the United States of America, is taking steps to prevent citizens from replacing it with something more democratic.

The US government has looked at what happened in the popular uprisings in the Mideast and North Africa, and is terrified that its corporate oligarchic republicanism could go the same way. According to a Homeland Securit Undersecretary Caryn Wagner said the use of social networking technology in uprisings that started in December in Tunisia shocked some officials into attention and prompted questions of whether the U.S. needs to do a better job of monitoring domestic social networking activity.

According to Boing Boing Wagner is trying to figure out how you use things like Twitter as a source. "How do you establish trends and how do you then capture that in an intelligence product?" she pondered.

Wagner said Homeland Security was working out guidelines on gleaning information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook for law enforcement purposes. Those protocols are being developed under strict laws meant to prevent spying on US citizens and protect privacy, she claimed.

Microsoft dismissed a lawsuit against a Czech firm it had accused of hosting command-and-control servers for a botnet it crushed.

Microsoft has reached a settlement with defendants Dominique Alexander Piatti and his company, dotFREE Group SRO, and will be dismissing the lawsuit against them. Writing in his blog Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney with the company's digital crimes unit, said that Piatti and his company, dotFREE, were among 24 defendants named in a lawsuit Microsoft filed in U.S. federal court last month as part of a takedown of the Kelihos botnet.

Microsoft used a court order to seize control of 21 domains where hackers had stashed the Kelihos command-and-control (C&C) servers. These included the cz.cc domain owned by Piatti, the CEO of Prague-based dotFREE. However Boscovich absolved Piatti of responsibility.

After looking at he evidence Microsoft believes that neither he nor his business were involved in controlling the subdomains used to host the Kelihos botnet. It looks like the Kelihos botnet controllers used the subdomain services offered by Piatti's cz.cc domain.

Piatti has agreed to delete or transfer to Microsoft the cz.cc subdomains that housed Kelihos C&C servers and will work with Microsoft on ways to prevent future abuse of dotFREE's free subdomains.

Insecurity experts at Trend Micro have discovered that some Android-based malware is using a blog in China to act as a Command and Control (C&C) server. Writing in its blog Micro said that the use of the blog was a new trick to receive instructions.

Trend's Karl Dominguez, a Threat Response Engineer said that this was the first time that Android malware implemented this kind of technique to communicate with its server. Disguised as a eBook reader, the application requests nearly total control over the mobile device when installed, including access to the Web, network settings, the ability to edit, read, and receive SMS or MMS messages, read and write to contact lists, disable key locks, make calls, and more.

"From our analysis, we found that this malware has two hard-coded C&C Servers to which it connects to receive commands and deliver payloads. The first server is just like the usual remote site, where the malware posts and gets information and commands. The second C&C server, however, caught our attention. The second C&C server is a blog site with encrypted content," Dominguez said.

Given that the Chinese government spends more time reading its citizens blogs than it does dealing with corruption, we are surprised no one has noticed.

It seems as if both Microsoft and Sony are really bent on endowing their Windows Phones and Vitas with remote control for Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, respectively.

Microsoft seems to be closer to the mark as its Xbox Companion App has already made its way into a video. Although the app is not available as of yet, it will be free for all WP users.

The beta apparently works quite well and it’s allegedly lag-free. This could indeed be quite convenient, as it will allow you to browse Xbox Live Marketplace as well as control and play games on your Xbox. You can find out more and find a link to the video here.

The announcement is closely followed by Sony, who announced that Vita will be capable of mimicking PS3 console controllers. There was even a demo, but the company ended up using a cord due to interference concerns.

Vita’s screen will act as a sub monitor, which somewhat resembles the Wii U. The first use however will come to Japan in a December update, and will bring remote control for PS3 digital video recording application Torne. You can find out more here.

It was announced that MSI's wireless GPU control utility, which will comfortably run off of Android phones, is coming soon.

MSI’s app will is said to complement rather than replace the company’s app Afterburner. It will allow for monitoring the temperature of your graphics card and overclocking/downclocking of the GPU on the fly.

Apparently, the phone and computer will have to be connected to the same wireless network. All in all it promises to be fun. Well, for a few hours at least.

The US Government, which was founded on the basis of a constitution, is about to give more of the powers that its revolutionaries claimed they fought for to Hollywood. In a bid to prop up Big Content's flagging business model, the government is about to bring in the Protect IP Act.

This will give copyright holders and the authorities the power to disable access to so-called rogue sites. Coppers can seize domains, block ISPs, enforce, search engine censorship, and cutting funding of sites that the movie and film business claim is infringing websites. In short it is the sort of censorship that not even China has and it is tossing out all its Consitutional freedoms in the name of the Movie and Music trade.

We have seen the signs for a while now. The US government has seized more than 100 domain names it claimed were promoting copyright infringement.

But the Protect IP Act will give total control to the Movie and Music Industry to quash websites they claim are facilitating copyright infringement. Rather than the movie and film industry having to deal with a registrant or owner of a domain name that accesses a foreign Internet site, or the foreign-registered domain name it will be the cops that will do it for them. If a domain is not registered or controlled by a US company, the authorities can also order search engines to remove the website from its search results, order ISPs to block the website, and order ad-networks and payment processors to stop providing services to the website in question.

As the law stands Big Content will just have to obtain a court order to prevent payment providers and ad-networks from doing business with sites that allegedly facilitate copyright infringement. However if they want to block sites it is probably better that they get the police too do it for them.

Many new products will add a new button to their remote and this is none other than a “Netflix” button. In a very surprising announcement, Netflix has stuck a deal with a number of manufacturers, including Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Haier, Memorex, Iomega, Boxee, and Roku, to include a new Netflix button that will take users directly to the Netflix streaming client that is included on their devices.

The move will certainly increase visibility and continue to drive additional growth for the streaming provider. Netflix has recently moved to offer a streaming-only plan and this is said to be already quite popular; this move is the next step for the company in their battle to dominate the video streaming arena.

The company says that already 250 released devices have the ability to take advantage of Netflix streaming, and the numbers will continue to grow. The new Netflix button and its convenience of use will make Netflix a household name and should help fuel growth. We think it is just smart marketing and an excellent move by Netflix; and it is going to help shut down potential competitors as buyers continue to look for Netflix streaming support.